What Does Dad Know...

When I was young, my parents had a saying that use to drive me insane (the picture attached I think portrays my best "insane" look with my dad)! When something needed to be done in a time sensitive manner or when they were just particularly stressed going into an activity, my parents would turn to us kids and say, "Now when I say jump, you say 'how high'." They would then proceed to clarify what that statement did not mean (i.e. no asking why, when, or any other form of questioning). As a youngster, I thought this request for blind obedience was annoying--after all, how was it that they could really know what was best for me in a moment.

However, now as time has progressed on, I have come to really appreciate the wisdom Mark Twain once expressed in the statement, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." There were times when I was young that my parents would give me "command" me to do things that I honestly could not see the value in doing. However, as is always the case with hindsight, I have learned they were more often than not right. Funny how much we learn over a few years!

In Alma 36, we read of father Alma's counsel to his oldest son Helaman following a mission trip they went on together. Alma teaches him many things, but one message he teaches early on in his counsel stood out to me as I read it this week. In Alma 36:2, Alma reminds his son of the captivity of their not too distant ancestors and says "for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions." Alma continues on to share his personal experience of having to endure bondage of a spiritual nature and how it was only the Lord who could deliver him.

I think the message here for me is that it can seem during tough times as though God is not listening or maybe even punishing us. I have found myself terribly impatient with Him during points like these in my life. However, it has occurred to me again this week that perhaps in 70 years or so when I meet up with Him again, I will be, to steal Twain's word, "astonished" at how much God has learned over this time.  Alma and his father's generation went through tough experiences--the kind of experiences that could leave a person asking "if God loves His children, why would He let them pass through this?" I think the truth is that God intends for us to not just get through but grow through these experiences--we just can't see it at the time.

As we deal with tough situations and wonder where the Lord is, I hope that we can remember to see where the Lord is leading us. I hope that we can learn to see opposition as opportunity and trust that as He leads us through deep waters, that He is making better swimmers of us. So if any of ya'll are like me and find yourself asking the Lord questions such as "why" or "when will you help", I just would invite you to ask this week, "How high."